KATY LÝ JOHNSTON TALKS THE NIGHTGOWN

Interviewed by Culture Coast Talks editor Daniel John. Interview transcripts might have been edited for length and clarity.

What did your way into acting look like?

I would like to say I got started acting when I played Annie in my third grade musical, but it was really when I started bullying my sister into performing skits with me for our parents. I always knew I wanted to act.

Born and raised a New Yorker did you get to experience the many great, iconic even, venues over there?

I performed at a lot of different professional venues as I was growing up in New York City, like Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, Lincoln Center Broadway on Broadway, and on Times Square, a lot of cool intimidating places like those. I was really lucky to have access to the professional world from a young age.

Coming from an immigrant background, perhaps you have a state of mind that most of the actors who confidently seek to make it in Hollywood do not have. It wouldn't really have been a possibility for your mom, or her mother, to pursue this life you are now living?

Meh! My mom could've acted if she wanted to. Even as an immigrant. That just was not her passion, Asians can do anything!

Well, of course. Now I came off as a real douche. I am more referencing something I heard you speak of in a past interview, about the two fleeing a war-torn country. That was a different life than the one that you're living?

You didn't come off as a douche, no worries! Just giving my cheeky answer.

When did you move to LA?

I moved to Los Angeles five years ago to attend University of Southern California, not only because I loved the school and its amazing film and acting programs, but mostly because I saw the movie 'The Graduate' and I got totally inspired to live an alternative California lifestyle, my favourite scene was filmed on the school's campus! I knew I could still act in New York but I wanted to experience living on my own for the first time. It's been really hard to adjust to this city honestly. Learning to drive really sucked.

Do you feel most comfortable on stage or on a set?

I enjoy the two crafts for all their differences and I enjoy the rigor of trying to master them both.

In this film, ‘The Nightgown’, the audience is brought back to 1976, both story and inspiration-wise, as the film is being quite influenced by the feverish horror films of the seventies. All down to all the ‘The Exorcist’ mania at the time?

What can I say, I love awful, campy stuff. That's like ninety-nine percent of what I am in at this stage of my career, so I have had the practice.

Horror is often named a good genre to get stories out, and it usually draws an audience without the need of a huge budget or a marketing campaign. Do you feel like this genre is a good vehicle for the characters and stories you want to tell in your acting journey?

I love horror because of how experimental the genre can get away with being so I definitely see it as a great genre for new filmmakers to express their creativity in. I've always been inspired by gothic literature in particular. And I hope to make horror films of my own once I get the budgeting together for it.